Archive for
April, 2013

Federal and local agents served search warrants throughout in Moreno Valley on Tuesday morning, April 30, raiding the homes of the city’s mayor, all five City Council members, a businessman with close political connections and the corporate offices of development company Highland Fairview.

To read story by Lora Hines, Jeff Horseman, Richard K. De Atley and John Asbury in The Press Enterpise, click here.

Special Section: Ontario airport Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Don Knabe and Mike Antonovich are recommending that the agency that oversees LA/Ontario International Airport return it to local control.

VICTORVILLE • The Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday filed a fraud complaint against the city of Victorville, a securities underwriting firm and others involved in a 2008 municipal bond offering.

Capitol Alert The latest on California politics and government April 29, 2013

A bipartisan handful of legislators is trying to stop the Sacramento tradition known as the “gut-and-amend” bill — the last-minute, late-night law-making that has become the summertime norm in the Capitol.

Supreme Court upholds Virginia laws that deny public records to residents of other states. The trend has been for states to open their records on an equal basis.

By David G. Savage, Los Angeles Times April 30, 2013

WASHINGTON — Americans do not have a right to obtain public records from states other than their own, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, dealing a setback to businesses and researchers who gather data across the nation.

A shoe has finally dropped in the ongoing financial escapades of Victorville, California.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), announced in a press release Monday, that it has filed a civil fraud lawsuit against the city of Victorville and investment banking firm Kinsell, Newcomb and DeDios (KND).

Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget contains no provision for a reserve. Without a financial cushion, some say, California may be more vulnerable to drops in revenue.

By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times April 28, 2013, 4:14 p.m.

SACRAMENTO — Arnold Schwarzenegger persuaded voters nine years ago that if they let him borrow money to cover the budget deficit, California’s financial woes would end for good. A key part of his plan was a new rainy-day fund to insulate the state from further crisis.

With pensions presumably shored up by Gov. Brown’s reform and a CalPERS rate hike, will the problem-solving trend spread to what is, by some measures, an even bigger retirement debt: health care promised state workers?

RANCHO CUCAMONGA — The two men who allegedly misappropriated $5.5 million in taxpayer funds meant for California charter schools may be inching toward a trial date, five and a half years after they were indicted.

San Bernardino City Attorney James F. Penman

Point of View San Bernardino is making progress against bankruptcy Posted: 04/28/2013 08:00:12 AM PDT

For the past seven years, the City Attorney’s Office, along with the council members from the Seventh and Fifth wards, have been the most vocal critics and opponents of the direction in which San Bernardino was moving. On Aug. 23, 2010, our office predicted the city would go bankrupt if the pending budget was adopted. Those same two council members agreed.

The announcement that San Bernardino’s signature Route 66 Rendezvous – or at least the essentials that made it a local mainstay – was leaving for Ontario struck many San Bernardino residents as sad but almost inevitable.

It’s not that Ontario didn’t have the resources to do a good job, many said. Far from it.

Warren

FONTANA — A recall campaign for two school board members is heating up even though the election is more than two months away.

Mayor Acquanetta Warren has been busy posting on her Facebook page – and others – posters made by proponents of recalling Fontana Unified school board members Leticia Garcia and Sophia Green. The election is July 16.

A chance to pick up a vacant state Senate seat and demonstrate the California Republican Party and their allies are serious about backing Latino candidates may seem like a golden opportunity for the state’s GOP, but the party seems to be setting its sights elsewhere than the 32nd state Senate District.

Dan Walters

David Crane, a businessman who advised former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on financial matters – particularly long-term public pension deficits – recently wrote an I-told-you-so piece for the Bloomberg news service about the State Teachers Retirement System.

With another fight over the national debt brewing this summer, congressional Republicans are de-emphasizing their demand for politically painful cuts to retirement programs and focusing on a more popular prize: a thorough rewrite of the U.S. tax code.

By Mark Gutglueck sbcsentinel@yahoo.com Republished from Friday, April 19, 2013

(April 19) The California Attorney General and San Bernardino County District Attorney have overstepped their prosecutorial authority and are engaging in “an impermissible charging scheme” in the pursuit of a bribery and conspiracy case against Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum and three former public officials, according to a defense brief filed with the Supreme Court on April 15.

SACRAMENTO, California (AP) — The California Assembly passed a bill on Thursday that would make the state the first in the nation to allow non-citizens who are in the country legally to serve on jury duty.

Senate next takes up the proposal, which would apply to legal residents. One of the bill’s authors says it would expand jury pool and help immigrants integrate.

By Chris Megerian, Los Angeles Times April 26, 2013, 10:30 p.m.

SACRAMENTO — California would allow noncitizens to serve on juries under a proposal being considered by state lawmakers, potentially expanding a fundamental obligation of American life to millions more people.

Slowly, sometimes painfully, America’s largest public pension fund has erased the nearly $97 billion worth of investment losses it suffered in the market crash. Its portfolio swelled to a record $261.7 billion Friday, surpassing the pre-crash high in 2007.

Justin Sullivan/GETTY IMAGES – Cutting reserves is not nefarious, bankers say. If a bank has fewer bad loans, it makes sense to have less money set aside to cover them.

By Danielle Douglas Published: April 26, 2013

Megabanks made a bundle this earnings season, with the top five firms alone pulling in $19.5 billion in profits. But a closer look at the books shows they have been moving money out of rainy-day funds to boost earnings.

Cantor’s approach blew up this week. Conservatives who want repeal might have the upper hand — over Democrats, too.

The influential conservative website Red State does not score key-vote legislation.

But Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s Helping Sick Americans Now Act nearly changed that. The bill would have insured thousands of Americans with pre-existing conditions who would be dropped because of a provision in the Affordable Care Act, Cantor argued. The bill was supposed to be a savvy way to make the GOP seem softer and score political points by tweaking Obamacare.

SACRAMENTO — Legislation to impose statewide regulation on the storefront sale of medical marijuana advanced this week, but it’s unclear how it would affect local ordinances in Inland Southern California and elsewhere that seek to ban the dispensaries.

Capitol Alert The latest on California politics and government April 25, 2013

Secretary of State Debra Bowen has rebuffed a request from advocacy and news organizations to allow direct, daily Internet access to her office’s campaign finance database, citing legal hurdles that would make it prohibitively expensive.

Los Angeles County prosecutors failed to present grand jurors with evidence favorable to Irwindale officials before seeking an indictment in connection with lavish business trips that city officials took to New York, a panel of state appellate justices said Thursday.

President Obama is joined by, from left, former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter at the dedication of the George W. Bush presidential library in Dallas. (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press / April 25, 2013)

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Los Angeles Times April 25, 2013, 6:22 p.m.

DALLAS — The five men who have held the title of president gathered to celebrate the dedication of George W. Bush’s presidential library at Southern Methodist University on Thursday, a rare reunion that focused on praising his achievements and made only passing reference to the controversies that divided the country during his administration.

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Thursday failed to pass bipartisan legislation that would allow states to collect sales taxes from larger Internet retailers, but the bill cleared a key procedural hurdle and is on track for approval after lawmakers return from a recess.

Two high-profile Democrats vying for the 31st Congressional District seat in 2014 – Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar and former Rep. Joe Baca – are concentrating on each other, not the man they want to challenge.

WASHINGTON — As part of a new push to broaden the way economic growth is measured, government statisticians will soon begin using a new accounting method that’s likely to spotlight the problem of underfunded pension funds, particularly those managed by state and local governments across the nation.

Capitol Alert The latest on California politics and government April 23, 2013

Despite relatively robust income tax returns and a projection that the state will finish April billions of dollars ahead of estimates, Gov. Jerry Brown today dismissed a reporter’s suggestion he must be “pretty happy,” suggesting any overage may be tied up by Proposition 98, California’s school-funding guarantee.

An Alaska Airlines jet takes off from Ontario International Airport near the Ontario Convention Center. (File photo)

LOS ANGELES — With Ontario threatening to sue for control of LA/Ontario International Airport, Los Angeles council members were warned by the city’s top administrator on Tuesday that it could be in for a long legal battle before a resolution is reached.

NEW YORK (AP) — Flight delays piled up across the country Monday as thousands of air traffic controllers began taking unpaid days off because of federal budget cuts, providing the most visible impact yet of Congress and the White House’s failure to agree on a long-term deficit-reduction plan.

No. But by trading cars for college (and homes for homework), some young people are investing in themselves rather than in the economy’s biggest-ticket items

Derek Thompson Apr 22 2013, 9:17 AM ET

Recoveries are powered by two things. Houses and cars. And young people aren’t buying either.

That’s the conclusion from a new study out of the New York Fed, via Brad Plumer, that can be easily read as blaming student debt for holding back the recovery by squashing home and auto sales.

The share of 30-year-olds with student debt who have taken out a mortgage has collapsed since the recession struck (ditto those without student debt).

And the share of 25-year-olds with student debt who also have an auto loan has fallen since the crash, as well (ditto again those without student debt).

This study seems to feed into a familiarly scary story about student debt as a dangerous bubble that is piling unprecedented levels of debt on young people, and is wrecking the economy by preventing them from starting their lives.

There’s two problems with that story. First, as Jordan Weissmann and I wrote for The Atlantic, there are so many reasons that cars and houses are falling out of favor with young people beyond student loans (and even beyond the miserable economy) that it’s impossible to pick a single culprit. For example, companies like Ford are vocally worried that smartphones are replacing cars as symbols of grown-up sociability, and young people are bunching in urban and urban-lite areas with many apartments and good public transit.

Second, it’s a myth that college graduates have more debt than they used to. In fact, they have less. Total debt for 20-somethings has fallen since its peak in 2008, as it has for every age group in this period of deleveraging. Families that feasted on credit in the last decade have spent the last few years paying back what they owe and cutting back their excessive spending. Young people, with and without student loans, have done the very same.

To read entire story, click here.

Comments Off on The Atlantic: Are Student Loans Destroying the Economy?

You all are undoubtedly familiar with the Harris Poll/Harris Interactive polling company. They have been around for over 50 years I believe and conduct numerous well known polls. From presidential elections and other assorted public policy issues to the weekly college football poll every fall, they do it all.

UCR’s med school funding, others, must compete with plans to expand treatment duties for non-physicians

April 19, 2013; 05:51Com PM

SACRAMENTO — Supporters of spending $15 million in state money on a medical school at UC Riverside point to a critical need for primary-care doctors as the federal Affordable Care Act kicks in next year.

MIAMI — Big investors are pouring unprecedented amounts of money into real estate hard hit by the housing crash, bringing those moribund markets back to life but raising the prospect of another Wall Street-fueled bubble that won’t be sustainable.

The situation surrounding the now highly-publicized Independent Foreclosure Review (IFR) heated to a boiling point this past week, when affected homeowners started receiving checks meant to help offset improper and illegal foreclosure practices leveled at them by banks.

Despite the Brown administration’s edict last year to sweep out nearly all retirees from the state workforce, more than two dozen departments still use them to fill some of the highest-paying positions in government, according to state data reviewed by The Bee.

Three years ago, Charles and David Koch, the billionaire industrialists and supporters of libertarian causes, held a seminar of like-minded, wealthy political donors at the St. Regis Resort in Aspen, Colo. They laid out a three-pronged, 10-year strategy to shift the country toward a smaller government with less regulation and taxes.

A defense attorney, in a motion filed with the state Supreme Court, alleges that state and San Bernardino County prosecutors are asking the high court to overturn a century of established case law and reinstate bribery charges against Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum.

VICTORVILLE • The city is now being represented by international law firm Arent Fox in connection with an ongoing investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission, city attorney Andre de Bortnowsky confirmed Friday.

SACRAMENTO — By now it’s a safe bet that California tax revenue will surpass expectations during the current fiscal year. But the question of what that means for the state’s bottom line is far from settled.

The program would confiscate firearms because of criminal convictions or serious mental illness. Lawmakers reject bill to let school districts arm teachers.

By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times April 18, 2013, 8:30 p.m.

SACRAMENTO — The state Assembly approved $24 million Thursday to speed up the confiscation of guns from Californians who are not allowed to own them because of criminal convictions or serious mental illness.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris

By Carla Marinucci April 18, 2013 – 10:41 a.m.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris has made lots of headlines in the last month for getting “best-looking” praise from POTUS, but today, Time Magazine is giving her a real honor. Harris has been named to the Time 100, the list of the most influential people on the planet.

I stumbled upon this story over at MousePrint.org and thought our readers over here at Inland Politics might have an interest in it.

According to this blog posting, District Attorney offices across the nation are allowing debt collectors to use District Attorney stationary to go after bad check writers. Presumably, the DA’s office receives a cut of some kind, be it a slice of the collected funds or perhaps a licensing fee to use the stationary.

The president of the union representing San Bernardino County’s prosecutors, deputy public defenders and child support attorneys has threatened a strike if the county continues imposing concessions he said are not on par with other counties.

Husing

ONTARIO — Inland Empire economist John Husing is not backing down from his harsh criticism of Los Angeles World Airports – the agency that operates L.A./Ontario International Airport – saying Thursday LAWA has deliberately run operations at the midsize airport down to the ground.

VICTORVILLE • Troubled by what she sees as the city’s failure to respond to a grand jury’s financial recommendations, Councilwoman Angela Valles requested a public update on the issue but was rebuffed by the City Council.

Capitol Alert The latest on California politics and government April 18, 2013

A day after Congress rejected a package of bills aimed at tightening restrictions on gun ownership, California lawmakers moved in the opposite direction, increasing funds for a program that confiscates weapons from people who are prohibited from owning them because of mental illness or violent criminal pasts.

The changes made it possible for Sylmar-based Tutor Perini to be ranked as the top candidate despite having received the lowest technical rating among bidders.

State high-speed rail officials acknowledged Thursday that they changed their rules for selecting a builder for the bullet train’s first phase in the Central Valley, a shift that subsequently made it possible for a consortium led by Sylmar-based Tutor Perini to be ranked as the top candidate despite receiving the lowest technical rating.

The system, which helps 525,000 jobless Californians, is more than $10 billion in the red. A fix would involve raising employer costs, cutting benefits or both.

By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times April 19, 2013

SACRAMENTO — A rescue effort is underway for the state’s financially troubled unemployment insurance program, an economic lifeline that currently provides weekly monetary support for 525,000 jobless Californians.